Two Former Christie Allies Sentenced to Prison for Bridgegate Conspiracy

A little over six months after the long-awaited trial of “Bridgegate” co-conspirators Bill Baroni and Bridget Anne Kelly began, the former Chris Christie allies were handed their fates on Wednesday. Found guilty on all counts of conspiracy, fraud, and civil-rights violations last November for their involvement in the 2013 George Washington Bridge scandal, a U.S. district judge sentenced Baroni and Kelly to 24 and 18 months in prison, respectively.

The ruling follows a grueling six-week trial at the end of last year, during which Baroni and Kelly denied knowledge of the true purpose of the lane closures, which the prosecution and its star witness David Wildstein—a former top Christie aide and the self-proclaimed architect of the gridlock-inducing scheme—said was engineered to exact revenge on the mayor of Fort Lee for not endorsing Christie’s gubernatorial re-election bid. Prosecutors sought sentences of between three and four years for Baroni, the former deputy executive director of the Port Authority, and Kelly, the former aide who sent the infamous “time for some traffic problems in Fort Lee” e-mail, but Judge Susan Wigenton opted for shorter sentences and a year's probation for both defendants, and an additional 500 hours of community service for Baroni.

For Baroni and Kelly, the sentencing marks the culmination of a tumultuous and uncertain three and a half years, but for Christie, the political nightmare will likely continue. Throughout the trial, a slew of individuals—including Kelly, Baroni, and Wildstein—implicated the New Jersey governor in the Bridgegate plot, alleging that not only was he aware of the politically-motivated lane closures but that he participated in a cover-up scheme reportedly involving New York governor Andrew Cuomo. (Cuomo has denied the allegations.) The damning testimony prompted community activist and gubernatorial candidate Bill Brennan to file a citizen’s complaint against Christie last October. In the ensuing months, the complaint wound its way through the New Jersey court system before Bergen County judge Roy McCreadyfound probable cause last month to investigate Christie for official misconduct. While the complaint is unlikely to materialize into criminal charges against Christie—the Bergen County prosecutor’s office announced earlier this month that it does not intend to pursue the case—Baroni and Kelly’s fates all but guarantee that the Bridgegate scandal will hang over Christie’s political career indefinitely. (Christie has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing or advance knowledge of the lane-closure scheme.)

The Bridgegate scandal cost a number of political operatives their careers and left an indelible stain on Christie, once a rising star in the Republican Party. Despite emerging as one of Donald Trump’s most ardent and effective supporters on the campaign trail after dropping out of the G.O.P. primary, Christie was passed over for potential jobs as vice president, U.S. attorney general, and chairman of the Republican National Committee, and was later stripped of his transition team leadership role, too. Christie declined to take any of the handful of consolation Cabinet positions that were offered to him. In January, Christie’s approval rating sunk to a low of 17 percent, tying the lowest approval rating of any New Jersey governor on record.

Luckily for Christie, the Trump administration appears to be offering him an out. On Wednesday, the White House announced that the New Jersey governor will oversee a commission to combat opioid addiction as part of Jared Kushner’s new White House Office of American Innovation. Whether the role is a stepping stone to a permanent West Wing gig remains to be seen. Christie told the Associated Press on Wednesday that he currently has “no interest in having a permanent role” in the Trump administration. Still, the new position—and national profile—seem to present Christie an opportunity to extricate himself from local politics, where his career is effectively over once his gubernatorial term ends in nine months.

Multiple media reports indicate Christie’s next act could be in sports talk radio. In the meantime, working to help recovering addicts is not a bad way to rehabilitate his own tarnished image.